After coming out of Bhagalpur divisional jail, the four-time MP from Siwan had said – “For me Lalu Prasad is the leader” and “Nitish Kumar is the CM of circumstances”.

Reacting to it, Bihar CM had said the next day that Shahabuddin’s remarks was ‘unimportant’.

Nitish had added that he would go by the people’s mandate and not by what someone else says.

“We have not got the mandate to give reactions. You (media persons) too are wasting your time and space on this. The whole world knows what is the mandate of the people of Bihar. Should I go by the people’s mandate or pay attention to what someone is saying? We have not paid attention to such things in the past. All these things are not important,” he told reporters in Patna.

Shahabuddin, who is a member of RJD National Committee – the top decision making body of the party – is known to be close to the RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Various pending cases against Shahabuddin were reopened and he was sent to jail after Nitish had assumed power in 2005.

Shahabuddin got final reprieve when Patna High Court granted him bail in a case of murder of a witness in the 2004 killing of two brothers in Siwan.